This invention relates to the art of telecommunications and more particularly to a system and method for routing a call in a telecommunications network made to a Universal Access Phone Number.
Many people today have several different telecommunications devices, referred to herein as terminals, such as a home phone, an office phone, a cellular phone, a pager, etc. Typically each of these terminals has a different phone number. As people acquire more phone numbers, and at times discard others, the task of ensuring that they can be reached by others can become complicated. They usually must provide several phone numbers by which they can be contacted when using different terminals at different times. It can then be up to the calling party to determine which number should be called to reach them. Furthermore, when people change services and get a new phone number they may not remember to keep other parties updated.
At times it can be very important for a calling party to have a phone number for immediately contacting the person. For example, daycare providers request a phone number or phone numbers for contacting parents in cases of emergency. However, keeping these numbers current and ensuring that the daycare provider has the phone number most likely to reach a parent at any particular time can be difficult.
It is therefore desirable for a person with several terminals to have a single number capable of contacting their different terminals at different times. It is also desirable for a person using different terminals at different times to have a single number for reaching them at any given time.